Melissa's+LMF+Anaylsis

//Learning Motivation and Fun//
 //In this exercise, you'll collect data from our database of interviews about fun and learning. Use this template and the data to create 5 generalizations for what you observed. Your generalizations should answer the questions//
 * //What makes learning fun and engaging?//
 * //What are the implications for your own teaching and design work//

#1: "Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people ."
//--David Sarnoff, American Inventor// Based upon 140 recorded interviews at the time of viewing, 24 stories (17%) claimed to have high competition involved versus 51 stories (36%) with high cooperation. These numbers show that twice as many **people enjoyed experiences involving cooperation** rather than competition.This indicates to me that a **strong confidence level** would develop if others could help in the learning process. Examples I viewed included Krista's choral group learning how to sign a song in a different language. Choral members practiced as a group and held each other accountable for accuracy. Another would be Sheri's experience of taking her dog to obedience school with other owners. All dog owners had the same goal in mine, and an environment in which other learners needed or wanted to cooperate with a teacher made the experience more memorable. I also believe learning in a group, non-competitive environment fosters the idea of security and lowers the anxiety level of learners, such as learner Al described of his fun dance class experience.

#2: "Learning is pleasurable, but doing is the height of enjoyment."
//--Novalis, German Poe//t Overwhelming, 69 stories (49%) were tagged as being **high on the physical senses for engaging activities**. This was over three times as much as those determined to be low on the physical sense scale. This fact also seems like a no-brainer to me. Why would I want to participate in something that was inherently lifeless, with nothing to captivate me? Most of the stories involved learning in a **tactile or visually stimulating environments**, or some **place other than their normal surroundings** (ie. attending a dance class, creating at a campus art studio, going on a field trip). The only exceptions I found were problem-solving activities that involved critical thinking and long development processes. This can be seen in John's participation in an agricultural simulation game, Jay's college course to design a new evolutionary creature, as well as Beth's Oregon Trail dilemma and essay assignment. All three experiences were inherently exciting for the learner, but had little physical stimulation. The latter statement leads to me to...

#3: " Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it."
//--Dwight D. Eisenhower, American President// What motivates you to go to work? Is it the money? Is it the //lack// of money (ie. I will go broke if I don't go to work)? Is there an intrinsic motivation seeking satisfaction or accomplishment (generalizing = teachers, musicians)? Or is it that you have a goal in mind, and work is the stepping stone towards reaching it? Based upon the LMF videos, **89 of 140 stories were tagged as having somewhat or high relevance to present or future goals.** That's 63% of the videos. Well, if I need or want to learn something, it would make sense to have the training be engaging in order for the desired behavior to continue. Like generality number two earlier: learning is pleasurable, and one can connect that **if a memorable and fun experience was engaging to begin with, the respondent would be more motivated to try it again**.

==#4: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. " == //--Martin Luther King, Jr.// Moderate to high challenges indicate that individuals want to be stimulated and are willing to **stick through it** to feel the sense of satisfaction pay off in the end. This apparently was true if the activity was going to help with their present or future goals. These goals could have been work-related, for personal reasons, a necessity that couldn't be postponed, or any number of reasons. It is easy to do some things that just get them done. It may not make the activity fun or engaging. On the contrary, might seem like a chore. However, with many of the students responding, the data overwhelmingly shows 76% of them (107 stories) considered their worthwhile experiences **stretched their comfort zone**, and challenged them. Like the saying goes, "No pain, no gain."

#5: " There's nothing funnier than the human animal."
//--Walt Disney//  In the data, 42% (59 stories) of respondents either had some or a **great amount of human interest** in their experience (involving people, feelings, behaviors), compared to 46% (65 stories) who felt their fun experience was more about processes or ideas. It appears other elements such as social environment, physical environment and content relevance superseded the direct human interest factor. This may also reinforce that learning is still foremost a series of processes and steps, with **the human element as an enhancement for engagement,** done purposefully with a goal in mind (ie. a field trip, a teambuilding activity, a guided instruction demonstration). In comparison, fun learning does not appear to be based solely on an experience with people with the chance of some enlightening new knowledge arising from it (for example, a party, a career fair, conference). Fun, engaging learning seems to very defined and choreographed, otherwise people may lose interest.